Vaxxas’ Nanopatch is the future of needle-free vaccine

Also, Vaxxas' proprietary dry-coating technology can eliminate the need for vaccine refrigeration during storage and transportation - removing the resource burden of maintaining a cold chain. "Leveraging both the potent immunogenic response and thermostability, Vaxxas is applying its technology to improve the performance of vaccines, with initial applications targeting infectious disease and oncology," says Mr Hoey through an email interview with BioSpectrum.

The company has also set up an office in Cambridge, Massachusetts and has signed a deal - its first commercialization deal since being founded - with pharmaceutical giant Merck for testing the technology on an undisclosed vaccine candidate. Under the agreement, Merck has an exclusive option to proceed toward clinical development for this undisclosed antigen and also has exclusive rights to develop two additional undisclosed vaccines.

Mr Hoey says the company does not plan to develop its own vaccines. "Vaxxas plans to work with the world's leading pharmaceutical companies to enable efficient delivery of their vaccines via the Nanopatch."

The company is reaching out to leading vaccine producers to discuss the benefits of the Nanopatch. "In this way, we believe the technology has the best potential to be broadly used across many different vaccines, reaching and benefitting the largest number of people," he says. The technology is currently in pre-clinical development and Vaxxas expects Nanopatch to be ready for use in clinical trials by 2015.